Happy New Year's

Happy New Year's to All

I hope that 2010 finds everyone in good health, or at least as healthy as can be expected. I wish good things for all.

I don't really make resolutions on New Year's. I generally just make a few easy to attain goals. For myself, at this point in my life (Grandma Time!) it's not about pushing myself to ever increasing heights - it's about learning a little more each year about life and how to deal with life. Not in any structured way, more just learning to accept things, continuing to try to be the best person I can be and always admitting that we all, at any given time, have things to learn until we stop living (you know, until we DIE)

Personal :

This year, for my health and to hopefully lower my pain level I need to walk at least three times a week - no matter what the weather is like. My physical health has been declining. I've recently found out that I have "degenerative arthritic" changes in my neck and lower spine. It's possible that these "arthritic" changes are in more areas of my body - indeed the pain is all over. I need to find information on degenerative arthritis, possible alternative treatments and outlook. I need to walk and do stretches to keep from losing mobility - This I've figured out on my own. It's already clear to me that pain medicine by itself isn't going to do the trick. I've been having increasing and spreading amounts of pain, and all along I've been being treated for chronic pain management (work injury) and it hasn't been working. Obviously I'm going to need to do a combination of things to manage this.afterI really just want to curl up in my bed and read books all day long, but I'm going to have to push myself to MOVE around. If anyone has any experience with degenerative arthritis I would appreciate information. I do have physical therapy sessions planned. That's enough of this, I usually don't get too personal on this blog.

Physical Goal

• walk three times a week
• daily or more often {3 times a day (?)} stretches

Mental Goal

• watch some comedic shows - standup comedy, Modern Family or other funny sitcoms
• Read some funny books - laugh out loud funny
• smile more often - just smiling can make me and others around feel better, if only for a moment.

Book and Blog related:

This year I want to try to finish all the reading challenges that I've entered (in the side-bar). Since they mostly crossover each other, this should be an attainable goal- which is fortunate, since I signed up for SIX challenges. I don't know what I was thinking. *g*

In 2009 I challenged myself to finish reading 30 books. I did that then increased the goal to 40 books. I did that, and for the year 2009 I have finished reading 43 books. Not a lot by some blogger's standards, but for me and my B.A.D.D., and scattered last few years (health issues and stress) it's quite an accomplishment. I used to be able to read over four books a week, but those days are long gone.

I signed on officially for one reading challenge, the Colorful Reading Challenge hosted by Rebecca of Lost in Books. I was not able to complete the challenge. One of my problems was that I didn't start the challenge until April (it went from January to December) which really isn't a good reason- it's only NINE books. My main problem is that I had a hard time getting into the few color titles that I had left to read. However, I did manage to read and review six colors.

1. BLACK - White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison
2. RED - Red by Jordan Summers
3. BLUE - Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre
4. GREEN - Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
5. WHITE - Black and White by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge
6. YELLOW - Crome Yellow by Aldoux Huxley

I'm going to try the 2010 version of this challenge, which has updated rules of no mandatory colors, all picked by you (or me, for myself)

Along with the 2010 version of the Colorful Reading Challenge, I have entered 5 other Bookreading challenges (links are in the sidebar)

1. Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge - 4 books
2. Flashback Challenge 6 books
3. Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge 2010 24 books
4. 2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge 12 books
5. Colorful Reading Challenge 2010 9 books
6. ***the Biggie**** 2010 Countdown Challenge 55 books

I'm looking forward to another year of great books and blogs. There are so many interesting book blogs out there - I've been having a lot fun surfing the blogs, entering and hoping to win books from giveaways ( I've won a few, which is so much fun). Before this year, I've never won a contest - so winning a book here and there is exciting for me. I've been enjoying Bloggers who review, bloggers who write fiction and bloggers who write fiction and review. There are quite a few books that I would never have heard about, much less tried if I hadn't seen the cover or read a review about it on the 'net. I don't have a huge following or uber-exciting content (that's not why I started blogging in the first place for) but I hope I can bring a book or two to the attention of a reader, just as I've been able to "discover" a "new" book for myself from other blogs.

I've like to get an idea of what other regular readers think about a book from not only blogs, but online bookstore reviews. I take some of them with a grain of salt, and I also pay attention to whether 99% of the reviews are 5* reveiws or 1* reviews - those reviews I tend to think are either all friends or enemies of the writer. I could be way off base, but I believe the odds are against 99% of people either all hating or totally loving a book. However, I do occassionally read these reviews and it occurred to me that I rarely post a review (like I'm a professional reviewer! *g*) on Amazon, Borders, etc. I do write about a book on The Library Thing or Goodreads, especially if I'm fortunate enough to get a book from them. I'm going to work on this in 2010. I figure if I like a book so much that I'm willing to write about it on my blog, buy the sequel and tell other people about it, I might as well spread the love as much as I can. So when I post my little amateur reviews, I'll post them on Goodreads, Shelfari, The Library Thing, Powell'sBooks.com, Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnes & Noble and The Book Depository. All of those sites allow customer and member reviews. The reviews at all the sites will sound a lot a like, but if I especially love a book, I should help get the word out, even if it's a small word from a little blog, every little bit helps - right?

I plan to keep reading and writing a bit about books that I enjoy. I can't promise that I'll be a regular blogger -- I don't think I have it in me to post everyday and find entertaining content to post about every day like a lot of the blogs that I read, but I'll write what I can, when I can.

Book and Blog related goals:

• read and review 55 books
• review on many different sites when I "LOVE" a book (B&N, GoodReads, The Library Thing, etc)
• finish six book reading challenges
• try to post three times a week - it won't always be a book review, it might just be what I'm currently reading or Teaser Tuesdays, etc.

I'm hoping finish The Better Part of Darkness (which I won from Sara's Urban Fantasy Blog). It'll be the first review from me of 2010. Next up is one of the Young Adult books - for the YA Challenge - Dust of 100 Dogs. That one will qualify for YA challenge, Speculative Fiction, and the 2010 Countdown Challenge. That's three challenges with one book. I love this type of thing. The Better Part of Darkness will qualify for Speculative Fiction Challenge, and the 2010 Countdown Challenge.

To quote the old witch-woman from Princess and the Frog "Dis Gon be Good! hahahaha". *read the "hahaha* as a cackle* Loved that movie.

One last thing for tonight/this morning. I have some books that I should "recycle". I figure that I can afford postage for a book or two everyonce in a while. I'm thinking of have a giveaway or trading books. Now these books are previously read. Some are used, gently used. Some have been used hard. Some have been barely opened, and then I lost interest. Is anyone interested in "winning" used books? Should I go for it? For instance I have Fanged and Fabulous by Michelle Rowan. This one has been used hard. The binding is coming loose. It's tapable though ( tape- able ) I read it and I think it's funny. Fluffy, kind of a tame vampire/danger book - "vampire light" you could say. Another book is called Marked by Moonlight by Sharie Kohler. I have to say that I could not finish reading this book. There is a plot, a handsome man, a woman going through changes she doesn't understand. Lots of danger and angst. The problem for me is that it reads like a romance. Change the setting to the old west (for the danger and hunting), change the characters from werewolves and werewolf hunters to say....an accidental criminal and bounty hunter (in those days it was dead or a live), keep the chemistry and OOh-La-La and you have a romance novel. Just not really my taste. I'll post pics of the books tomorrow.